PRIME-TIME SUMMIT

TV EXECS BOWED TO PUBLIC SENTIMENT. CLINTON WON A P.R. TRIUMPH.RESULT: RATINGS FOR SEX AND VIOLENCE

FOR THE FIRST PRESIDENT TO GROW UP in the Age of Television, it was a gathering to relish. Thirty top TV executives--honchos from ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as major cable networks and Hollywood studios--stopped by the White House last Thursday for a meeting. To be sure, it was a command performance (Bill Clinton had proposed the summit in his State-of-the-Union address), and the subject matter was not one the invitees would have picked: sex and violence. But at least everyone was talking the same language. When Viacom's Jonathan Dolgen warned that putting ratings on shows might make the networks...

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